Edinburgh scientist wins Brain Prize for memory work

Lizzy Buchan 14:33 Tuesday 01 March 2016 A leading Scottish neuroscientist has won his field’s ‘Nobel prize’ for ground-breaking work into the foundations of memory. The €1 million Brain prize has been awarded for the first time to a trio of UK scientists, including Edinburgh University expert Richard Morris and English colleagues Tim Bliss and Graham Collingridge for their work on a brain mechanism called ‘Long-Term Potentiation’ (LTP), which revolutionised understanding of how memories are formed, retained and lost. The three neuroscientists demonstrated how connections between brain cells in the hippocampus, which formulates new memories, can be strengthened through repeated stimulation. LTP underpins the plasticity of the brain, so it can reorganise and rebuild itself after damage such as a stroke. However damage to the nerve connections, known as synapses,…